It’s inevitable.

Every time I try to leave town, the world goes a little bonkers. Floods and murders have both occurred while I have been “on vacation,” and hopefully we’ll avoid those in coming days, as the last week has been more than enough to handle.

Part of the chaos is my own doing by hosting the Barry County Candidates Forum five days before I leave for the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors Conference in Cardiff, Wales. Making sure that event ran smoothly has been a stressor in recent weeks, and I’m happy to report it went beautifully.

All four candidates — Amy Boxx and Andrew Cole for prosecutor, and Steve Blankenship and Chad Johnson for presiding commissioner — arrived with peps in their steps and performed well.

A full breakdown of their responses to the nine questions in each race is in this edition, and the event was live streamed on Facebook, which will remain accessible for 30 days from the time of posting per Facebook’s policy.

The 75 people who attended the event seemed to have enjoyed it, and the candidates and moderator heaped more than enough thanks to the paper for putting on our third-ever Forum for Barry County candidates.

I also wish to thank our sponsors one last time: Security Bank of Southwest Missouri, Missouri Farm Bureau (Chad Yarnall), Randall Masri & Randall P.C., Blake Fields Law Office and Barry County Co-Op. Having had no sponsors at our sheriff and northern commissioner Forums in 2024, it was nice to be able to promote these businesses for their assistance in covering some minor costs and time expended into putting the Forum together.

Credit also goes to the Cassville school district for use of the Performing Arts Center. While the FEMA Event Center is a fine facility, the PAC added an air of elegance to the Forum we hope to capitalize on again in future elections. 

A bit to my surprise, it was the first time inside the facility for many on the stage and in the audience. Also, a quick thanks to Dusty Reid for sticking around a few minutes after the event to show my eldest daughter and her friend how the lighting system works and what future theatre production classes they may have access to at Cassville. That was a sweet ending to the evening, seeing the wheels in those pre-teen heads turning as they are starting to reach the age they can truly start thinking about their futures.

My elation at the event’s success, however, was short-lived. On Friday, we learned of an issue at our printing press that would send a stick flying through the spokes of a typical week of delivering the news.

The plate machine had been having trouble, which delayed our distribution two days last week. We were informed Friday it had gone down again and would not be back functional until Wednesday at the earliest, a day after I head over the pond.

In the middle of writing the recap of the Forum, I was also connecting with other publishers in the region who found themselves in the same boat. For us, the next-closest newspaper presses are at least 3 hours away, and we had to find one.

As a result, this week’s issue looks a touch different. Unfortunately, and a fact I did not realize until Friday, we’ve been spoiled with full color over the years. The two print shops we found, one in Oklahoma and another in Eldon, do not offer full color. Oklahoma offered 8 pages of color for a 16-page single-section product, and Eldon offers color only on the fronts and backs of each section.

Ultimately, price and location were the determining factors. Eldon’s timing made it so my wife, Jordan, could drop me off at the airport on Tuesday on the way to retrieve the papers, and Eldon’s quote came in about 30% less than Oklahoma’s.

While it may not be the gleaming, colorful 16 pages we normally produce, we are proud that in a pinch and ahead of a week where trips are planned, we were able to pivot from our norm and still produce a newspaper we are proud of.

I will return on Sunday with a gleam of my own, I hope, ready to take on the next challenge that comes our way and excited to report on adventures abroad.

Fingers crossed that the chaos takes a rest for the week.

Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/publisher since 2023. He is a three-time ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or [email protected].